Here and Thereafter
by cosmicplaything123
Summary: Artemis Fowl and Holly Short's complicated relationship has grown inevitably more complicated, two years after the events of the final book. Don't ask for too many plot details, because there isn't really a detailed plot in mind. Y'all know how it goes. Hartemis fic, don't like, don't read.
1. Chapter 1: Ships Passing In The Night

The Fowl Estate, August 15th

The raven-haired young man tossed and turned in the midst of sleep; his pale skin sweating against the silken sheets that he grasped at with his carefully-manicured hands, his eyes clenched shut with such force that one wondered if they had been clamped. As he moved, rolling over to his side, pulling aside a sheet and revealing his bare chest – not muscular, but lithe and skinny – and he groaned.

Within his dream, Artemis was floating across an ocean of sensations. There was no light, and no dark, rather, a void, and in it he sat. He had no sense of touch or taste or smell; everything that could be perceived was absent. This was how the nightmares usually went. He'd been having them more and more since he had died and returned to life. This was how it was, being a creature without a body.

Time stretched on forever, in the absence of external stimuli. He found himself recounting memories to himself. But even they faded, like lights bleaching the color from a painting. He thought of happier times – this nightmare had gone on forever, it seemed, before he arrived upon the memory.

It was strange, one of his happiest memories being one in which he had nearly died. It certainly said something about the quality of his life – but that was besides the point. He was there, and he remembered it clearly. A gorilla cage. He was held there, head cradled on Holly's lap, and had just barely awoken – the pain of the concussion (and worse injuries) he had sustained bearing down on him, but fading quickly.

The next moment was one which had left an indelible mark. He saw the tears in her eyes, like crystalline jewels, dripping down, but a smile, an unbelievably happy smile, was drawn across her face. A smile of supreme relief; he had not died. And then, without thinking about the consequences, she leaned over and kissed him.

The kiss had only lasted a second, but in the void, a second is meaningless. That second stretched out into an eternity, and in that eternity, he was happy.

And then, something new happened. The dream shifted. It was over, the nightmare. Instead, he found himself sitting on his bed, in Fowl manor, but during a different time. It was spring outside, and somewhere in his mind he knew it was winter were he sat. But across from him, sitting on the windowsill, was Holly. She was dressed in the dark green LEP retrieval jumpsuit, her helmet held under her arm, her crew-cut, auburn-colored hair perfectly framing her features. Her hazel eyes were warm. As he watched her, he realized that he was naked, in this dream. But far from the usual nudity dreams, he was comfortable. As if he was supposed to be.

As he watched, Holly stood up from her perch, taking off her wings and letting them drop to the floor with a small 'thud'. He watched as she approached, reaching behind her back and pulling down a hidden zipper, then allowing the jumpsuit to fall from her shoulders to the floor. Though he knew that in real life, she wore a one-piece beneath it, to provide padding for the wings and as an extra layer of protection, in this dream, she was naked.

He inhaled sharply, both in the dream and laying upon the bed, and his imaginations provided him with such joys. Her breasts were small, but both those and her rear were perky, her frame lithe, like a gymnast's. She approached him, naked, and though he adored her body, he was captivated by her eyes. He had been mesmerized by magic before, but this was something else. She stepped closer, slowly, as if she was a cat approaching a stranger. From his vantage point, she was on eye level with him, and within a moment that took an eternity, she was standing inches away from him.

Artemis raised a single hand. She took it in hers, cupping it to her face, first, and then she moved it, allowing it to grace the soft, smooth skin of her breast. Then, with her other hand, she caressed his face. Her mismatched, blue-and-hazel eyes bored into him, and he felt like he was being laid bare.

She slowly, cautiously, moved her hand from over his to stroke his manhood; and, as if waiting for this, it stood tall and firm. Then, she reached down, to her own mound, rubbing there for an instant, and pulling away with a thin dribble of liquid. Then, she moved, first one knee, then the other, straddling him, reaching down, and guiding his shaft into her waiting passage. The sensation was electric. She inhaled deeply, looking down and closing her eyes, and for a second, even though it was simply a dream, he worried for her safety. But after that moment passed, she looked up, opening her eyes and looking deep into his, a smile crossing her face.

She began moving, up and down, slowly at first, breathing in a rhythm, matching each stroke to a breath. Artemis found his spare hand groping her bare hip, and drawing her closer to him with each stroke. She leaned forward, drawing him into a deep kiss, moving faster and faster.

He felt his own body beginning to betray him. _Not yet_, he remembered thinking. Speed was mounting, and as it did, the friction was becoming too much. It was an unbearable pleasure. As she moved, she moaned softly, her whisper goading him deeper into the passion of the moment. He was so close, so very close. But so was she. Her breaths were coming closer and closer to one another, her moans growing louder and louder. They were going to finish together. They were going to-

Artemis jerked awake from his slumber, his eyes wide and manic. He looked about the room, not sure if he feared or hoped someone else was there. He was, however, not shocked to see he was alone. He got up, and realized that he had a painfully stiff erection. He sighed. Being physically nineteen years old was a pain, he knew. It wasn't as bad as when he was fourteen or fifteen – gods, those years had been a nightmare – but it was still annoying to wake up with an itch to scratch.

He was glad that he hadn't finished – he had had a few wet dreams in the past, but none quite like that. Usually they weren't so… vivid. And they were almost never linked to his nightmares. And… he looked around, and chided himself foolishly. No one could read his thoughts. But he had never dreamed of Holly and himself.

He got up, as the erection began to subside, and wandered over, through the open door and into his private bathroom. There, he poured himself a glass of water from a waiting crystal jug, and drank it in one steady gulp. Composure restored, he began to analyze himself.

On the one hand, it was hardly surprising that he was thinking of Holly in that way. She was an attractive female, he rationalized. And he had known her for such a length of time. Her appearance in the dream was probably because it was her that was responsible for him being brought back to life. She had saved his DNA, in the form of a kiss of his own, and that had allowed him to be cloned. She freed him from the nightmare that was his former reality, and it made sense that his subconscious had linked that to the dream.

But the sex, on the other hand… he poured himself a second glass and downed it. No, the sex had just been the dream. Sex and life were linked, he rationalized, it was probably meaningless to ascribe deeper meaning to a dream. He and Holly were, and would always be, just friends, and he had made peace with that almost three years ago.

Haven, Under the Earth's Surface, Simultaneously.

Holly Short jerked awake from a dream that had shaken her to her very core. Not, of course, that it had been an unpleasant one. No, far from it, it had been so deeply pleasurable that it worried her. Holly was wearing a tank-top of sim-cotton, now soaked with sweat, over a pair of overlarge, men's boxers. So sue her. They were comfortable. It beat sleeping in whatever lingerie that the Haven department stores were trying (and failing) to convince single women that they needed to be sleeping in, every night. She got up, looking around her apartment, not sure whether she was hoping someone would be there, or fearing the possibility.

She recalled the dream clearly, as it had not begun to fade, and wondered what was wrong with her. She had known him since before he was even a pubescent! For her to think of him like that was… and he was a Mud-Man! The layers of the perversion that had snuck into her head like so many dwarves tunneling into a mound of clay was almost sickening!

But… she reached down with a single hand, sliding it underneath the elastic band of the boxers to feel her slit. Feeling the evidence and withdrawing her hand with a sigh, she realized that whether it was wrong or not, it had most certainly aroused her. She hadn't felt like that in years.

_I need to get out of the apartment more_, she thought. She had been going between her job and her house without a care for her social life for decades now. She couldn't remember the last time she'd gone out for drinks – other than that a couple times with Trouble, and though he had been a gentleman, she'd let him down gently. She just wasn't looking for a relationship. And it had been true.

Leaning back against the pillows on her futon, she thought about it more. She was clearly not thinking straight. She tried to go back to sleep, while sleep was still fresh on her mind, but something had been awakened that did not want to go back to bed. At least, not without a fight.

Holly reached down, under the elastic waistband again, and found her aching, aroused clitoris more than ready for some action. She began rubbing it, gently at first, but finding that it needed more and more stimulus, rubbed harder and harder. Within seconds, she found herself on the brink of an orgasm. Her mind wandered far and wide, back to the dream. She bit into her pillow, rolling so that her arm was beneath her body, her hips bucking against her hand, as she thought of the kiss. Of him holding her close. Of his cock, deep within her, thrusting with each breath, faster and faster. Her spare hand groped at one of her breasts, in a pale imitation of what he had done in the dream.

She was so close, and finally, she felt it. The sweet release, burning within. As she came, her mouth opened into a low, mewling groan as she rolled back over, spent. She removed her hand and looked at it, dripping with fluid.

_What the fuck is wrong with me?_ She asked herself, closing her eyes. When morning came, she swore that she would never think of this again.

The Fowl Estate, at the same time

Artemis stroked with increasing frequency as he drew nearer and nearer to orgasm. The thoughts of the dream had proven impossible to contain, as did the nearly-unlimited appetite his hormones provided. Normally, when felt this urge, he contained it or, at the very least, contained his thoughts to more worthwhile thinks other than simply intercourse. But this was not normal. He found himself moaning as he moved his hand, faster and faster, his precum dripping from the tip, thinking of the dream. Of her. Of Holly. Within seconds, he came, emptying his load onto himself, releasing more with each wave of the orgasm.

He looked at the evidence on his hand, breathing unsteadily and attempting to regain his composure. He had known her since he was a child! She would never view him as anything but. And she shouldn't have to.

Wiping it away with a handful of tissues from his bedside table and tossing it into the wastebin, he rolled over and drifted off to sleep.

_What the fuck is wrong with me? _He thought, and as he drifted off to sleep again, he swore that, come morning, he would put all thoughts of this from his head and never think of it again.


	2. Chapter 2: Past and Future Tense

Argon Institute, Haven, almost three years prior

Artemis Fowl sat in front of the indoor waterfall, eyes closed, legs crossed in the lotus position. He had, somewhat dubiously, taken the good doctor's advice. Meditation, he reasoned, was a pastime enjoyed by many ascetic cultures, and had many documented benefits. There was no reason why, in addition to the chemical and therapeutic treatments he was already receiving, he couldn't do this as well, to speed things along.

Truth be told, it was boring, but the introspection was valuable. For the first few sessions he had tried it – guided meditations being what they are – he had accomplished nothing, save for feeling like a moron sitting in front of an indoor waterfall in the lotus position with his eyes closed.

But, as time went on, and as he continued to do it, he found that he could combine the traditional methods of meditation with his own form of "planning" meditation. The result was that he could be introspective, while, at the same time, occupying his own mind-space, as it were.

In his head, he was far from the room with the waterfall to which he had confined himself. Rather, he found himself in Fowl Manor, in his own planning room. He was happily – or whatever passed for happily, for him – whiling away the time by discussing past ventures – both legal and illegal.

The Atlantis Complex which held him in its grip was brought on by guilt, so it only made sense to acknowledge and move past that guilt.

He thought about the kidnapping of Holly Short, first and foremost. Truth be told, it was his first 'big' job – he was simply an eleven-year-old then, albeit one with an extraordinary knowledge of worldly matters, and it would be wrong to hold him to the same standards then that he held himself now, he reasoned.

Of course, reason and logic can only get you so far in your own head. Past a certain point, what mattered less was what made logical sense, and what mattered more was how you felt about it, logic be damned. And truthfully, he didn't know how to feel about it.

He felt guilt, this was certain, but he couldn't tie it down to just the kidnapping. So he continued onward. His next set of thoughts was on the C-Cube venture. That had been an absolute, unmitigated disaster, that was for certain, but truthfully, he felt no guilt for that, save for the fact that Butler had been hurt.

_Butler_, the young genius thought, _Why is it that every time I make a mistake, he steps in and gets hurt for it_?

He answered his own question, with the obvious answer. He was sworn to protect Artemis with his life – and more than a simple oath – he carried it more deeply than simple words – he viewed Artemis as perhaps his own flesh and blood – his son, or perhaps his little brother, that he had never been allowed to have. _And I nearly sent him to his death again, not weeks ago,_ he thought. The guilt that panged with that thought burned deep. He made a note to, as soon as he could, apologize profusely to the Eurasian manservant and make amends as quickly as possible. He knew that Butler would not hold him responsible for what the complex had, in his eyes, forced him to do, but all the same, it would be good to make a clean breast of the affair.

He progressed onwards, remembering the crimes he had committed in the subsequent year, while he was mind-wiped. They had been no great affairs to him, and as such, he felt very little guilt over it. The joy of being a thief with an eye for millions, rather than the pennies most burglars fought over, was that his efforts were best suited to stealing from those with ill-gotten wealth of their own. Stealing from thieves was hardly a sin, he reasoned.

His efforts to save the Demon family had been a vain effort, he knew, more committed out of boredom than the desire to save them, but all the same, he got some solace out of knowing that, for all his faults, he had done something good. But that small solace – worth perhaps a drop of serotonin – was lost when he remembered how Butler had suffered during the time he was gone, and indeed, how much his family had suffered while he battled Demons on Hybras. _Three years_, he thought, thinking about how long that seemed, in comparison to the years he had been alive. He was only seventeen, after all, though he felt significantly older when he thought about what he had been through.

_What is age, but a number, to one such as me, _he mused, _after all, I've been committing crimes since I was barely out of diapers. I am capable of outwitting and out-profiting nearly all who have ever stood in my way. What value is that number?_

He pressed on, making another mental note to apologize to Butler.

The time-travel affair stuck in his memories. But only in one aspect. If anyone, including Doctor Argon, and even himself, most of the time, asked him if he regretted anything he had done, he would say no, and that it had all been necessary. But he remembered Holly's bitter anger when he admitted to having lied to her, the pain of those eyes. The guilt from that surged through him. If the other sources of guilt had been sparks, then this was a lightning bolt of mental pain, which he felt damned for.

"Ding-ding-ding," came his own voice, from within his mind-space, but not from within his internal monologue, "We have a winner."

Artemis looked up from his desk to see himself, sitting in front of him, on a simple wooden chair, suspiciously similar to the one he himself had occasionally been asked to sit in at St. Bartleby's while he waited for the on-staff therapist to call for him to come in. This reflection was not wearing the bespoke suit that Artemis always wore, even in his mind-space, opting instead for blue-jeans and a white T-shirt. He looked patently ridiculous.

"How does it feel, Artemis, to know that you've made your own bed, and now you're laying in it?" the reflection asked, a venomous smile flashing across his own lips.

"What are you doing here?" Artemis asked his doppelganger, contemptuously. "I thought I was finally rid of you."

"Oh, how I wish it were true," Orion responded, that same bitter smile on his lips, his tone caustic and melodramatic, "I would rather return to the comparatively blissful nonexistence that was my being until the Atlantis Complex got you, rather than see you continuously muck up your relationship with Holly, but alas, we're stuck with each other."

"For the time being," Artemis noted, irritation creeping into his words.

"Oh, hush," Orion said, waving him off nonchalantly. "For all my hatred of you, I'm here to help."

"You hate me, and yet you want to help." Artemis said, incredulity rising in his voice.

"Yes, and I think you know why."

"Because at the end of the day, we are the same person. Two sides of the same proverbial coin. When the Atlantis Complex is finally cured, we will return to being one person, the original Artemis Fowl, who is, I might add, me."

"Impressive deduction, but no. Whether you rid yourself of the Atlantis Complex or not is no business of mine. That's your cross to bear, and in true, son-of-a-carpenter style, you fashioned it yourself."

Artemis frowned, unimpressed with the comparison.

"I am here to help because what you do affects Holly. And, in spite of the fact that I have accepted that she will never return my feelings, I think that she might return _your_ feelings, in spite of your boorish manners."

"I beg your pardon?" Artemis said, his voice rising.

"Oh, don't play dumb, Arty. It doesn't suit us." Orion said, smiling at his alter-ego's discomfort, and raising his right hand. Above it materialized a screen, out of the ether. On it played a single moment, a moment he knew well.

Artemis was unconscious on the floor of the gorilla cage. Holly had his head in her lap. She was pouring every last blue spark of magic she possessed into him. After an instant, the magic stopped, and she waited. His eyelids fluttered open, and she, crying from fear and happiness, kissed him. The screen paused on that kiss.

"She kissed you," Orion said, looking at the screen, with a bemused mixture of jealousy and pride, "Why would that be? After all, she knows you almost as well as you know yourself. And you hate yourself."

"I don't hate myself," Artemis protested.

"You hated yourself enough to create me, and, let's face it, that's pretty bad, all things considered. This entire Atlantis Complex is here because you didn't want to face the guilt of what you did to Holly, so you made me, which is to say, you, but without the baggage of all of your misdeeds and manipulations. A pure entity who could give her what she deserved."

Orion smiled at his own summation, and Artemis scoffed at it.

"I would think that if I had created you, I would have had the sense to make you a little bit more capable than what you are."

"Ah," said Orion, raising a single digit, "But that's just it. Without your intelligence, your 'capacity', you wouldn't have committed the crimes which led to that guilt. Granted, you never would have thought of the crime which led you to meet her in the first right, but the subconscious is rarely so logical."

"So, what are you saying?" Artemis said, craving for this conversation to get to the point so that he could leave this mind-space and ignore Orion.

"I'm saying that the solution is right there – your guilt is over your treatment of Holly. If you treat her better, maybe, just maybe, she'll forgive you. And – if that happens, there's a one-in-a-million chance you can forgive yourself."

And with that, Artemis decided the conversation was over. Leaving Orion sitting at the table, he awoke from his meditation, and decided it would be best to give up on the subject for now and focus on the more therapeutic methods of recovery.

_Hmmph_, thought Orion, from within the mind-space, watching over his erstwhile mental companion, _Absolutely typical_.


	3. Chapter 3: The More Things Change

Haven, Lower Elements Police Headquarters, 8 AM

Holly Short had awoken to find that, as usual, she was running a few minutes behind schedule. Hastily downing a cup of sim-coffee and putting on the uniform, before rushing out into the world. Her arrival was only a couple minutes late, but even as she did, she found Trouble Kelp leaning up against the doorframe of his office, eyeing her suspiciously as she approached.

"I know what you're going to say, Trouble and -"

"Do you, Captain?" Trouble asked, loud and accusatory, as always. "Come into my office."

She sighed, following Trouble into the adjacent room, stood in attention over the chair opposite the desk, and, as he closed the door and sat down in the seat behind the desk, she followed suit.

"Why are you late?" he said, between the buzzcut and the rather militant facial expression, appearing almost as Julius Root had come back from the dead to possess his successor.

"Traffic," Holly lied, keeping eye contact with her commanding officer, "You know how the lines get this time of the month."

"Traffic," Trouble repeated, not believing a word, "You know what the traffic's like, why not leave a few minutes earlier?"

Holly almost smiled at this. The conversation was nearly a mirror of one she'd had with Commander Root almost… gods, it was more than a decade earlier for her, wasn't it? A lot had changed.

"Trouble, you know why."

Trouble shifted uncomfortably in his seat at this. He had been a captain, just like her, a few short years ago.

"Yeah, I do," he said, dejectedly. He hadn't expected the conversation to go any differently, "Get out there, just… I don't know, do some paperwork or something."

"Yes sir, commander," she responded, standing up and doing a mock salute.

"And try to look like I yelled at you when you get out there, too," he added, "I can't have the rookies think I'm going soft on you because you're a girl."

"As opposed to going soft on me because we used to date?" Holly asked, winking at Trouble.

Trouble grinned.

"Careful, Short, I'm an engaged man now," he said, raising his left hand and pointing to the large, golden engagement ring engraved with gnomish on his ring finger, "Can't have rumors going around that I'm still sweet on you. Especially not with Lilli expecting and all."

Holly laughed at this. She was happy for him, truly. Their relationship hadn't worked out, but they'd parted friends. Hell, he had even gotten her to patch things up with Lilli Frond, a feat which Foaly fully believed had somehow involved the mesmer.

The truth was, and Holly had hated to admit it, that Lilli actually wasn't an idiot. Sure, she was pretty, a couple years younger than her, and died her hair a shade of strawberry blonde that nauseated Holly, but when the two of them had sat down over tea and discussed things, they had a lot more in common than they had different. Including having been in a relationship with Trouble Kelp. Now Lilli was on speed dial. What a difference a year can make.

"Stop by Foaly's, too, would you?" Trouble asked, "I almost forgot that he asked for you. Some new equipment he wanted you to test."

"Alright, Trouble," Holly said, starting for the door.

"Remember, it's Commander when you're on duty," he grumbled.

Holly winked again, and walked out the door.

Soon she found herself at Foaly's laboratory, a place where he usually worked with his nephew on whatever new gadgets he happened to have whizzing about inside his brain. Today, however, she was surprised to find him standing by his desk, talking to No. 1.

"Number One," she said, walking forward into the room to hug the empathetic demon, "It's good to see you! How have you been? How was the moon?"

No. 1 smiled through gritted teeth as he swore he felt a rib crack with the hug, "Easy, Holly, it's good to see you too… please let me go, I like my ribs where they are..."

"Sorry," Holly said hastily, composing herself, "So, welcome back? You like your trip to the big space-rock in the sky?"

"Isn't that where all space rocks are?" Foaly said, bemusedly, "Anyways, captain, that's not why I called you here. Number One just stopped by on his own."

"Alright, Foaly, so why did you call me here?"

Foaly looked tense.

"It's about Artemis?" Holly asked, her brain automatically assuming the worst.

_He can't be dead, can he_?

"It is," the centaur confirmed, but continued, "He's not dead, hells, he's been doing just fine for himself since he recovered his memories. I've just been doing more research on the chrysalis. There's some things he should know."

"Like what?"

Foaly sighed.

"The chrysalis was not designed to be a technology to produce a long-term organism. Nopal was able to last for a few years in a vegetative state, which was itself an anomaly. Cloning organisms is banned for a reason; their life expectancy is severely hampered."

"So what you're saying is..."

"… What I'm saying is, that given Artemis's state, I have no idea what his life expectancy is. He could persist for decades, perhaps more, but without further testing, I have no clue what his lifespan could be."

"This chrysalis," No. 1 began to ask, "Is it magical or technological in nature?"

"That's the most ingenious bit," Foaly replied, looking a little miffed at referring to anything produced by the late megalomaniacal pixie as ingenious, "It's both. While the clone is produce via a scientific process, its growth is sped along with the use of magic. I've been studying its schematics for quite some time; it's a strange mixture of bio-tech, nanotech and good, old-fashioned magic."

"Why did you not test him sooner?" Holly asked. "Wouldn't it have been simpler just to have done tests on the body before bringing it to the surface, or shortly after?"

Foaly shrugged, "I did. That's the thing. The body, once created, was roughly the same as any other human at that age, apart from the brain tissue, which was unused. It's the long-term effects that concern me."

He crossed to a monitor and began typing.

"Besides, the reason I'm concerned now is that he has completely shut off communication with the Lower Elements for the last few months. Has he had any contact with you?"

Holly blushed slightly, but fought to hide it. In the last six months, he hadn't even contacted her with the fairy communicator she had given him. "No, he hasn't."

No. 1 and Foaly both noted the blush, but were gentlefairies enough to hide that they had.

"All the more reason to double check. I assumed you'd jump at the opportunity to go to the surface and check up on him."

"I'm LEP Recon. I'm not allowed to just pop up to the surface on a whim and say hello."

"That's why I cleared it with Trouble for you to make a surface run with a couple new systems of mine to test out."

"Alright, centaur, then what have you got for me?"

Foaly walked over to a desk crowded with experimental equipment. He pulled out a jumpsuit, of which the outer surface was black as night, speckled with small, glimmering, diamond-like objects. He tossed it to Holly.

"It's a Stealth Suit. Latest model. The specks are similar to cam-foil, combined with trace amounts of stealth ore."

"Stealth ore? Isn't that a bit outrageously expensive for a LEP budget?"

"Normally, yes, but these are in small enough quantities that the suits can be made without breaking the bank. It's not as effective as normal stealth ore shielding would be, but it's enough to make you invisible to most cameras, especially at a distance. Moreover, it also has a built-in set of thermal coils. Again, my own design. Can keep you at a safe temperature anywhere from about ten feet from lava to the vacuum of space."

"Alright. Anything else?"

Foaly held up a gun.

"Neutrino 5000. Designed by yours truly. All the benefits of the 3000, but with a couple added features."

"Does it still shoot things?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then I'll make do with it."

She was suddenly in a hurry to make the surface run.

"You won't be 'making do' without a set of wings. And that's the third thing."

He rattled around, producing a set of wings which matched the suit. Sleek, powerful, and again, speckled with stealth ore diamonds.

"These can handle speeds similar to a shuttle to the surface. Paired with the suit, so can you. Be careful, though, because a collision with a tunnel wall in this will be much, much more painful than hitting a tunnel wall in a titanium egg."

Then, Foaly grabbed one last helmet. This one was matte black, with none of the stealth ore markings of the others.

"What," Holly quipped, "Run out of glue?"

"If I'd coated the helmet with stealth ore, I'd hardly be able to keep in contact, would I? I'm going to watch from down here. The helmet and suit are designed with more than enough diagnostic equipment to be able to identify anything wrong with the Mud Boy's body, so long as you can get him to sit still long enough for me to do a scan."

"I'd like to stay and watch the results," No. 1 piped in, "The way you've described this Chrysalis... it's actually kind of interesting. I may be able to shed some light on some of the magic-related issues."

Foaly nodded, "I wasn't going to ask, but I was actually hoping you'd say something like that."

"Alright, Foaly, Number One, it's about time I get going then," Holly said, only to be cut off by a short whinny and the stamp of a hoof.

"Try the suit on first and we'll run a basic diagnostic first. I have every bit of faith in my technology, but that doesn't mean that we should ignore protocol."

"Heavens, no," No. 1 said, apparently having picked up sarcasm in his time on the moon, "Since when have we ignored protocol?"

Foaly looked at him, his face one of slack-jawed betrayal and a little bit of shock, as Holly doubled over with laughter. After a couple minutes of composing herself, she crossed to a curtained-off corner of the lab that had been erected just for situations like this, and changed into the new jumpsuit.

She took a moment to admire herself in the mirror. The suit was skin-tight, and less bulky than the usual uniform. _I look good_, she mused, pausing for a moment to look at her own rear.

She walked out from behind the curtain, helmet under her arm, Neutrino belted at her waist.

"Zipper in the front?" she mentioned in passing to Foaly, as he typed away at his computer, doing a diagnostic on the suit's vitals and syncing everything to her signature – her voice, frame, biometrics – everything.

"Yes," Foaly replied simply, "We got complaints from some of the Recon jocks that the old suits made it difficult to... relieve oneself while on duty. Anyways, put on the helmet. It needs to do an iris scan."

Holly obliged, and then was nearly blinded as the helmet did a laser scan of both of her eyes.

"D'arvit," she swore, attempting to blink away the blue afterimages.

"Sorry, Holly," Foaly said, continuing to type away, "But that only happens the first time. Anyways, you should be good to go."

"Alright," Holly said, strapping on her wings.

"Wait, Holly," said No. 1, "How are you doing on magic right now?"

"No need to ask her," replied Foaly, "My suit can tell exactly how much magic she has in the tank. And the answer is...," he tapped away on the keyboard for a few seconds, and said, "Next to nothing. As per usual."

"It's not my fault," Holly began, "You know how surface visas have been since Opal blew up half of our failsafes. It's a miracle that anyone is allowed on the surface at all."

No. 1 walked over to her as she talked, and tapped her chest. A feeling like an electrical shock, with roughly the force and direction of a lightning bolt, knocked her off her feet.

"Frond's sake, Number one!" Foaly shouted, "At least give her some warning next time."

"Sorry," said No. 1, walking over to try and help her to her feet.

She waved him away, standing up and brushing off.

"How do the sensors look now, centaur?"

Foaly double checked the screen, "Like you're running hot and ready to go, captain."

"Good. Number One, next time you want to try something like that, please don't. Besides, what happened to the whole "cocoon of magical energy thing"?"

"It's still working," he explained, "But that was more for the sake of marking your magic. Since your magic reserves are still somewhat attuned to me, I just needed to top them off. Kind of like the difference between building an engine and just filling up the gas tank."

"Anything else before I go? Foaly, want to shoot me with an experimental weapon or something? That's about how today seems to be going."

"Nope," replied Foaly, "Seems good to me."

And, as soon as the captain was out of earshot and headed towards the thoroughfare, he turned to No. 1.

"Anything seem off to you about her today? She seemed a little tense."

No. 1 shrugged his scaly shoulders.

"She's probably just nervous. She hasn't been to visit Artemis in almost a year now, not since he recovered his memories, right?"

"Yeah, but I've never seen the Mud Boy get her on edge like this before. Even when he was the enemy."

"Artemis Fowl, the enemy," No. 1 said, scratching his chin, "Never was able to get my head around that one."

"You didn't know him," Foaly muttered, typing away at his computer.


	4. Chapter 4: What We've Waited For

Tara Shuttleport

Holly rode the thermals all the way up from Haven, covering the distance with remarkable speed. She'd have to remember to congratulate Foaly on the wings' maneuverability when she got back. The upwards shot was far from smooth, but all the same, the wings felt almost like they had grown from her back, rather than having been made in a lab. Flight had alway felt natural to her, but these wings were cutting edge.

When she reached the top of the tunnel, she landed on the docking platform usually reserved for LEP vessels, and took off her helmet, which came depressurized with a pop and a slight hiss. The attendant gave her a stern look as she crossed, but she could tell that her arrival had already been cleared. Keeping her helmet tucked under her arm, she crossed through the surprisingly empty shuttle port. Ever since Opal had gone nuclear and nearly destroyed the entire planet, surprisingly few faeries had decided to make the trip to the surface. They felt it wasn't safe. And they were probably right – during the event, every shielded faerie satellite, shuttle port and installation had been visible, for only a couple days, but long enough for every bit of cover they had to be blown sky-high.

Luckily, without documentation, the suddenly-visible (and then suddenly-invisible, again) faerie tech had been written off as mass hysteria. Still, those crazy enough to believe in faeries were forever seeking proof of what they had seen. A few had even found shuttle ports – but they were quickly dealt with – mind-wiped and sent on their way, convinced that they had discovered nothing and sorely disappointed about it.

Holly made her way through the shuttleport and exited into the Ireland countryside, but not before replacing her helmet and shielding. She flew overland for what seemed both like an instant and an unbearably long amount of time, and soon found herself flying over the Fowl estate.

Though the majority of the estate's acreage had been converted into farmland after the incident, the family mansion – which was probably more of a castle than a mansion, but frankly, the description is adequate – was left largely untouched, as was nearly a half-mile of land around it. Not what it used to be, but still beyond opulent. Besides, as global technology had recovered to near pre-incident levels in the last year and a half, the farmland was growing increasingly abandoned. Soon, the Fowl estate would claim back what land it had lost.

She flew gently down, landing quietly on a window ledge and using the helmet's advanced hearing to boost the audio to the point where she could hear mice scrabbling against the walls of the food stores in the basement and birds chirping in their nests along the roof. But no people. No Artemis.

She tapped her neck, activating the microphone there.

"No sign of Artemis, Foaly."

"What? Nothing?"came the centaur's distressed voice.

"Come on, Foaly. All the surveillance equipment under the world and you can't locate someone who isn't even our enemy?"

"Don't pin this on me! He dismantled every piece of equipment I put anywhere near that house."

Suddenly, there was crackle on the line and Foaly's communications cut out. Static filled her helmet.

_What in Frond's name..._ Holly thought, and then a voice came over the speakers. Crisp, clear, and with just a hint of an Irish accent. A voice she recognized.

"Holly," came Artemis's voice through the helmet speakers, "I assume it's you?"

"Artemis? This is new. Where are you?"

"I'm at the barn on the estate. You remember the one that I converted into a hangar, I assume?"

Holly smiled, remembering the solar-powered plane that had barely survived a single flight.

"I do."

"The very same. Shall I return communications to you so that you can tell Foaly?"

"Probably for the best. But why all the cloak and dagger, Artemis? You're not having another episode, are you?"

"No," said Artemis, a bit too quickly, "The Atlantis Complex has come and gone. And, even if I wasn't stringently keeping an eye on things, I'm still on a low dosage of the same medicine that they gave me in Argon's clinic. It keeps things manageable, even under severe stress."

"Severe stress? Artemis..."

"I'm returning the microphones and speakers to you now. Please, come to the barn. And tell the centaur not to worry."

The helmet turned back to static for a second, and Foaly's voice returned.

"Holly? Can you hear me? Holly?"

"I'm here,"she replied.

"What happened? Was there an equipment failure? You faded out for a moment there."

"It was Artemis. He's on the estate, in one of the old barnhouses. He asked me to come out there."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know," she said, checking her Neutrino and switching it to a low grade.

"Holly, my screens are telling me that you're changing the Neutrino's settings."

"I'm just being careful. If he's having another bout of Atlantis..."

"Not possible," came No. 1's voice, "Atlantis Complex is more than a simple personality disorder; it needs magic in order to function. Artemis has been magic-free ever since I did a detox on him while he was at that clinic. No sparks, no complex."

"Then what the hell was the point of all the therapy?"

"Killing the snake doesn't get rid of the venom. The damage was done. Still, if he recovered fully, there should be no chance of a relapse. Unless he got his hands on some new magic."

"Artemis wouldn't do that. Not intentionally, at any rate. He learned his lesson."

She took off from her perch, flying over fields of immaculate green grass and spotting the barn, repainted red with a white roof. Standing in front of it was a familiar figure. Though she couldn't make out the features without mechanical assistance, she knew it was Artemis.

She swooped down like a hawk who had spotted a rabbit, pulling up at the last possible second to float in front of the Mud Boy, on eye level. Tapping her helmet's visor release, she looked carefully at him.

As with every time she saw him, she was surprised by his height. Somewhere in her mind she had always pictured him as tall-for-a-fairy, which is, frankly, anything over three foot three. But the mud boy was six feet tall. Not unreasonably tall for a male human, but for a fairy, that was absurd. His dark hair had premature streaks of grey in it. This worried Holly. Artemis was still young, even for a human. And after the incident, his cloned body hadn't even had a single streak of it. His blue eyes were piercing and strange. She had grown used to seeing her own hazel eye staring back from his skull, but since the cloning, that had been lost.

He had clearly been taking better care of his body, though; though he had never been and probably never would be muscular, he had apparently been working out just enough to give him a hint of definition to his arms and legs. His jawline was what some would probably call austere, but his facial features were, remarkably, fairly attractive. He was dressed in a casual (for him) white button-down shirt and a pair of black pants.

"Holly," he said, a thin, almost sarcastic smile crossing his lips.

"It's good to see you, Artemis."

"And you. How's Haven?"

"Remarkably, still standing without your help. We did make do without you for a few millenia, you know."

"Yes, it's a miracle you've made it this far."

They both let out a small laugh at this. An awkward one. She found her eyes drawn to his lips as he spoke. Watching as they carefully enunciated each syllable. He was fine.

"Do you want to come and see the plane? I've almost completely rebuilt it," he asked, gesturing towards the open hangar. "You'll forgive me if I tell you that your cameras are out of commission. Not that I don't trust the centaur,"he said pointedly, directed at the external microphone that was invisible to the naked eye, but placed on Holly's right shoulder. "But I've had enough people trying to steal my work over the last twenty years."

"I'd love to," said Holly, without even a second of hesitation. Scans could wait.

Haven, Police Plaza, Foaly's Office

"D'arvit," swore Foaly, as the signal cut out again. "That Mud Boy."

"Too smart for his own good?" No. 1 commented, amused.

"By half."

No. 1 fidgeted with a few of the items on Foaly's "experiment" table.

"I'm beginning to think that Artemis has his own agenda," Foaly grunted, fuming and trying to retrieve the lost signal, not noticing No. 1's antics.

"Don't we all? I bet they're happy to see each other again, though. He probably wants privacy."

"Privacy for what? All she's up there for is to do a scan and return. It's not like they're going on holiday to Atlantis together or something."

"Foaly, I know you noticed the blush too. Empath, remember? I might not be able to read minds – or at least, not without a pretty substantial discharge of magical energy – but I can tell what people are feeling."

"And just what is Holly feeling?"

No. 1 smiled, juggling a couple of shiny, dud Neutrino batteries, "I'll let you know when Holly figures it out herself."

Fowl Estate, Barn

Holly was surprised by how little spare space was left in the hangar. The last time she had visited, it had basically been little more than a shell. Barely enough to keep the wind out. But in the time since, it had been fully rennovated. The hangar was still open – and with a space-age (at least for a human) airplane in the center of it. But the back half of the hangar had been enclosed, with two levels. The lower level had a surprisingly complete work setup – computers, complete with LCD monitors flashing current events and schematics up – and an even-more-surprisingly complete gym setup.

Catching her eyes glancing at the gym, Artemis nodded and chuckled.

"Butler's been enforcing my wellbeing. You should have heard him when I came off of the crutches. 'You're body's new, and a gift. So take care of it.' And I decided he was right. I may never be able to play rugby, but at least now I can outrun something should the need arise."

"Where is Butler?" Holly asked, the absence suddenly striking her. Butler was never far from Artemis's side, at least not willingly.

"On holiday. Or, at least, that's what it probably feels like to him. He's looking after Myles and Beckett while they're away at school. For all the talk of home-schooling the two of them, it looks like they're still going to boarding school. I volunteered Butler as their stay-away guardian. If Beckett's anything like me, he'll be of more use there than here. Besides, it's only a half-hour drive if need arises."

"'If the need arises'? Usually threats on your life don't give you a twenty-four hour notice."

Artemis laughed, "You sound like Butler. But times have changed. _I've_ changed. And in more ways than just growing up."

Holly liked the sound of his laugh more than she'd care to admit, and she was still looking closely at his mouth as he spoke. _What am I even looking for?_ She asked herself.

"Besides," Artemis continued, trying not to make eye contact because he knew that if he did, he'd be dumbstruck himself, "I'm more of a homebody now. Ever since the incident. It's strange. I found myself bound to this place for six months as a spirit, and then six months again of physical therapy once I'd been brought back, but now I can't bear to leave it. I don't know what it is."

"I see you've done some things with the place," Holly said, deliberately turning away from Artemis so that he couldn't tell she was staring, acting as if she was taking in the surroundings.

"Ye-yes," Artemis responding, the words catching in his throat, and he began to fidget nervously with the collar of his shirt, "After the incident, I came to the decision it was probably best to leave the house to my family, for the most part. I moved out here. The barn is now set up with a full bedroom, and I've moved my study out here. I find being out on the grounds helps me think."

"What prompted the change?" Holly asked, firmly looking anywhere but at his face, though she desperately wanted to.

"I... frankly, I don't know. I can't explain it. It's just... better. I go inside most days, to see the boys and eat with my family, but frankly, I feel happier out here. Maybe it's independence."

"The Artemis I remember has always been fairly independent. I seem to remember a certain kidnapping incident being his own idea."

Artemis blushed at this, and she looked over at him, feeling a little bad for bringing it up.

"So... captain. What brings you to my humble abode?" Artemis asked abruptly, trying to change the subject.

"Humble abo- right, why I'm here," Holly said, suddenly brought back to the present with the reminder of her job. "Foaly sent me to do a couple scans, test out some new equipment. He wanted me to check in on you."

"How thoughtful," commented Artemis, dryly. "Scans of what?"

"You," Holly said, awkwardly. "After the cloning was done, we were uncertain what the effects on you could be. He wanted me to do a couple of scans, double check and make sure you weren't suffering any... side effects..."

She trailed off, finally looking Artemis in the eyes. The deep blue was mesmerizing – the turn of phrase, not the magical term.

"Right. I suppose I should let you do that and be on your way. I'm sure you have a busy schedule, captain."

"Not really," she replied, awkwardness making her surprisingly honest, "It's been mostly desk work since the incident. Most faeries aren't risking surface runs right now. Too hot. Too many Mud Men out looking for magical creatures."

"Sounds boring," said Artemis, now making eye contact with Holly, "So... new suit? Stealth ore-studded, I assume."

"You assume correctly," she replied, a slight blush settling into her cheeks, "At least, if it was an assumption. _I'd_ assume you'd swiped Foaly's blueprints."

She smiled at the last statement.

"Guilty as charged. Interesting design. Still... all the more... tantalizing... to see up close," he said, leaning in on the pretense of checking the suit.

Holly found herself inching closer to him. _What is wrong with us?_ She asked herself, reaching up with a single hand to touch the side of his face. Where she touched, she swore she felt a spark, like static electricity, and a small shock of amber magic passed through her and into him.

Artemis felt it as a surge of warmth in his cheek. The spark didn't harm him, and he felt it surge within him, awakening some primal urge. He ducked down onto one knee, Holly's hand still against his face, and kissed her. The initial contact was only for a second, his lips barely brushing hers, but he withdrew, damage done.

"I'm sorry, Holly. I don't know what came over-" and he was suddenly caught off-guard as she lept forward with the grace of a striking panther, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply. It felt good, she realized. Moving one hand from around his neck to begin unbuttoning his shirt, a fumbling, blind motion which quickly yielded to her opting just to begin ripping it open, she continued to kiss him. He tasted of wild magic – a strange, earthy taste with the sweetness of ripe fruit.

Artemis, instantly yielding, began to work on her jumpsuit. The zipper, though hidden, was easily accessible from one who knew what he was doing, which Artemis always did. The suit fell to the ground easily, and he reached an arm around to begin on the one-piece that she wore underneath.

Haven, Police Plaza, Foaly's Office

"Hey, Foaly, what do these numbers mean?" No. 1 asked, boredly, gesturing at a screen.

"Those are the suit's sensors," Foaly said, fumbling around, trying and failing to hack into whatever systems Artemis had in place that were blocking his signal, "Biometrics, mostly. Heartrate, breathing rate, blood oxygen levels. If she had the helmet on, we'd even be able to see her brain activity. As is, though, I -" he paused abruptly, looking at the screen No. 1 was looking at.

"Those numbers can't be right," he said, tapping the screen and attempting to refresh it. No change.

"What, is she running a marathon?" he asked, dumbfoundedly, and then a thought occurred to him. There were over a million points of articulation on the suit, each with a sensor that transmitted their location, accurate to within a millionth of a centimeter anywhere on the planet. With a few keytaps, he had a 3D-projected model of Holly in the center of the room. Or, more accurately, a 3D-model of the suit, which was coincidentally on Holly's body. The suit was in an awkward position, leaning partly back, with its right arm crooked over its head and the other groping at a space somewhere in front of it.

"I think your sensors may be off, Foaly," replied No. 1, politely.

"No, that's definitely right, but what on earth could she be do-"

Foaly stopped talking as the suit's torso split along the line where the zipper was, and the arms dropped behind its back to allow the entire thing to fall to the ground, in a perfect 3D model of a crumpled pile of dirty laundry.

Realization struck both No. 1 and Foaly in a flash, and now they found themselves blushing rather brightly.

Fowl Estate, Barn

Artemis was silently thanking the gods for the workout regimen that Butler had forced upon him. He lifted Holly into the air by her hips, holding her tight to his body as they continued to kiss passionately. Her one-piece had been partially removed, and she panted greedily between stolen kisses. They both wanted more.

He carried her up the stairs to the door to the bedroom, managing to maneuver it with one hand while still holding her close to himself. He laid her gently on the silken sheets – something he had insisted upon – and finished removing his – partially torn, he realized – shirt, and unbuttoned his trousers, allowing them to drop to the floor and stepping out of them, to stand naked and erect before her. Holly was gazing lustily up at him, having finished removing her own one-piece with trademark, military efficiency. Her appearance was just like in his dream – her chestnut skin was smooth, with perky breasts and erect nipples the same, slightly darker shade of brown as her lips.

He climbed across the bed, crouched over her, gently kissing her, and whispering, "Are you sure about this, Holly?"

Holly paused for a moment, the question pregnant in the air for a moment, and she nodded. Then, she snaked her legs behind his hips and drew him closer.

"Fuck me, Artemis," she said, answering the question rather poignantly.

_With pleasure_, he thought, moving into position, and driving his erect member into her. She gasped with shock and pleasure, and as he began to move, slowly at first, she began to move in time, grinding her hips into his.

Artemis was at an awkward angle, she realized, crouched over her significantly smaller frame, bent at the midriff in order to keep his head near hers.

_I should help him out_, she thought, and moved her mouth from his, moaning slightly, and biting into his neck, right where it met the collarbone, and holding on there, hard enough to bruise the skin.. The slight pain sent Artemis into a spasm of ecstasy, and he began pounding her harder, letting out a moan.

They continued in this fashion for several minutes, Holly occasionally repositioning, leaving a trail of dark hickeys along his neck and chest, and finally, she felt him swell and climax deep within her. That sensation was all it took to drive her over the edge, and she came as well, grinding her hips into his with passion and letting out a slight, mewling groan. The task complete, he rolled off of her and lay panting beside her, as her breathing leveled.

Neither of them made eye contact, not wanting to admit what they had just done.

"I should probably get going," Holly said, not moving from her spot on the bed, "Foaly will most likely be sounding the alarm, since I'm fairly certain my sensors all went dead the moment I took off the Stealth Suit."

Artemis, unused to physical activity, was still catching his breath.

"That was... quite something...," he said, between deep breaths. He turned his head to look at her, at the exact same time she did the same. The unspoken question hung in the air between them.

_Is this the start of something, or the end of something?_

Artemis was the first to move, drawing himself up into a sitting position, first, and moving slowly – and perhaps a bit sorely – to stand and walked over to his closet, pulling it open to grab a fresh shirt – the one he had previously worn fit only for a dumpster – and began getting dressed. Holly followed suit, her one-piece still, miraculously in one piece on the floor, and after she put it on, she walked over to Artemis and embraced him from behind, her arms wrapped around his waist, her head against the small of his back.

"We will have to do this again," she said, firmly, but quietly.

Artemis nodded. _The start of something, then_.

As soon as they had returned downstairs and Holly had finished getting dressed, she noticed that she had left her helmet lying on the floor. She slid it over her head, and noticed the signal was still lost. Pulling it off again, she looked over at Artemis.

"Can you...?" she asked, and he nodded, crossing to a computer and, with a few keystrokes, removing the broad-spectrum jammer which he had designed specifically to irritate Foaly.

Within seconds, Holly's heads-up display was filled with a vision of Foaly's face, which was looking at a monitor off and to the right. No. 1 was still there, sitting next to him, and they appeared to be in wildly different moods. Foaly seemed worried to the point of making himself ill, and perhaps a bit embarassed. No. 1 was in high spirits, laughing and clapping Foaly on the back.

"Foaly?" she said, loudly enough to draw their attention back to her monitor. Foaly looked over, startled, and clopped over.

"Holly! How's Fowl Manor? We lost you for almost an hour there."

"Oh, it's fine," she said, hoping she wasn't blushing (for the record, she was), "Just catching up with Artemis. You know how he is about security."

"Right," said Foaly, knowing that it was a lie, and a bad one at that, but choosing to ignore it anyway.

They both stood there in awkward silence for a second.

"So the scans," Foaly said, attempting to bring the conversation around to something resembling normal.

"Right, the scans."

Holly flew over to Artemis, landing in front of him.

"Artemis, do you mind turning this way and standing very, very still?"

Artemis stood over her, his shirt buttoned wrong and his pants unbelted. She could just barely see the hint of a hickey where his neck met his collarbone. She felt a bit guilty about that, in hindsight.

The scans were done automatically by her helmet, feeding the information back to Foaly within a second. Foaly watched the readout for a moment, going over the numbers as they went. A slight anomaly sent him reeling.

"Holly, listen carefully," he said, "I need you to bring Artemis back to Haven."

"What?" she asked, somewhere between concern and shock, "What's wrong with the scans?"

"There's an anomaly. I just need to do some tests. Nothing too major. Number one will also be required, I think. Just get him down to Haven. He'll probably have to stay overnight."

Artemis hadn't picked up on a single word of what was said, but from Holly's body language, he could tell it probably wasn't good.

Holly popped up her visor, and began to speak, "I don't suppose you have an overnight bag here somewhere, do you?"


	5. Chapter 5: Shot

Tara Shuttleport

The shuttle attendant, a burly male gnome, was quite surprised to see a Mercedes-Benz pull directly into the holographic bush which covered the shuttleport's rear entrance. That is, he was quite surprised, until the driver's side door opened, and out stepped a Mud Man in a dark suit and mirrored sunglasses. Then he was terrified. At least, until Holly Short stepped out of the passenger's side door, and flashed a badge.

"Holly Short. Bringing this human in under the authority of the LEP," she said, curtly.

"Holly Short! I've heard about you. Gave my predecessor more than his fair share of shocks over the years, if I remember correctly."

"True. Let us pass, would you?"

"You're going to have to leave the car here, I'm afraid. Unless you want to try piloting it down the chute."

Holly let the sarcastic comment pass, and made to walk past the guard. Artemis followed behind her, amused by the expression on the gnome's face as he passed. It was a combination of bewilderment and terror.

_Am I that terrifying?_ Artemis thought to himself, and realized that after all he had done, he was still lucky enough to not be coming this way in handcuffs. The thought caused a slight pang of guilt, a dull ache, but it quickly passed. _I am not that person anymore_, he thought.

Holly felt strange herself, and not just in the gooey post-coital way. Being near Artemis was still an electrifying sensation. After all they'd been through, they both knew that they had been more than allies, hell, more than friends. But what had happened in the barn was strange. Why had her magic acted so strangely? It was like some of her sparks had decided to jump ship to Artemis when they came close. Even now she felt a little bit drained, though she still had most of the magic No. 1 had given her left, and it was buzzing within her, as if the act had somehow galvanized it. And what was so wrong with Artemis that Foaly had asked her to bring him to Haven? Friend to the People or not, bringing a Mud-Man into a Faerie city was asking for trouble.

They made their way down the hallway in silence, both engulfed by their own thoughts and worries. The back entrance was quiet and secluded, kept separate enough from the main one that even if the tourist industry had been booming, no one would have seen them. Within minutes they had made their way down into the landing bay that led down into the chute. There was only one shuttle in sight, a rickety old egg of steel that was either a week away from being recycled or deciding to recycle itself the old fashioned way, by falling directly into the lava of a thermal vent.

"Please tell me that you did not ride that thing to the surface," Artemis said, nodding in the direction of the egg. "I'll admit that the People have surprised me before, but that thing looks like it's been ready for the scrap heap since before I was born."

There was a slight, awkward silence as they both remembered the age difference between them, but then Holly broke it with military bluntness, as per usual.

"We don't exactly have a wealth of options. It's pre-Koboi, and most of the stuff post-Koboi is still out of commission. I'd go out on a limb and guess that's the only reason that it hasn't been sent to the recycler already."

Though internally, she admitted it probably would still keep being used until someone died in it, even if the incident hadn't created a vacuum of working shuttles. The LEP budget hadn't been stellar before the incident, and since had been stretched even thinner. She was surprised that Foaly even had the budget to design a new gun, helmet, suit and wings in the meantime, though the centaur had always made do with even the pittance he normally complained about being his budget. Still, with Koboi industries now permanently defunct, she guessed that he now got most of what had formerly been their contract.

"But to answer your question, no, I didn't ride that thing up. That thing is up here because presumably, it's been left as a spare. I used the new set of wings, in order to test their new functions and the new suit's ability to withstand heat and pressure. But I can't exactly carry you down a thermal vent without you getting a bit crispy."

Artemis nodded, remembering the schematics for the Stealth Suit and how he had messaged Foaly over a secure line with some tips, when he had been recovering from the 'incident', as it kept being called. Foaly was not pleased to receive them, but still took some of the tips anyway.

Holly put on her helmet, and checked the clocks for the thermal vents.

"Alright, the thermals are good. We should have a straight shot down."

Artemis nodded, following her as she climbed into the pod and strapped herself in. He climbed into the (only) passenger seat, and strapped himself in with precision. If this had been anything like his last few times down a chute, then he was probably going to feel like throwing up on the way down. He silently thanked the gods that he was still in the habit of skipping meals.

Holly performed a final system check and, with the clearance out of the way, the egg hopped into the chute. The drop was sickening, and Artemis clenched his stomach with fear and exhilaration as they fell into the void below. The only thing visible through the single window out of the egg was the churning magma far, far below. Certain doom.

As the sound of roaring magma below became deafening, Holly flipped switches and adjusted the flaps on the craft with efficiency and skill that would be the envy of the best trained pilots that the human race had to offer; the craft plummeted downwards, and Artemis felt sweat cake his forehead. _Was it nerves, or was this craft actually getting too hot for him?_

Holly was calm as can be, not that that would be any indication of anything, anyways. She was, at heart, a soldier, and part of the job description was maintaining calm in life-or-death situations.

At the last possible second, the descent of the egg slowed, bouncing around on a thermal updraft to land on a pad at Haven's own shuttleport. Within five minutes she had completed what had taken nearly half an hour to do in reverse.

Artemis unclenched his stomach, and exhaled, almost unaware that he had been holding his breath.

"Are you alright back there?" Holly said, barely turning her head to the side to look at him. He was pale.

"Fine," he said, hoarsely, "Though on the return trip, I'd like to be in something slightly newer than the stone age."

Holly moved aside a single piece of paper to check the construction date on the craft. 1814, in human years. She elected not to tell Artemis.

Holly wasn't sure if she was supposed to be sneaking Artemis in or not, but rather than risk it, she wrapped him in cam foil and had him sit in the back seat of an LEP cruiser to get him down to Police Plaza, rather than take him through Haven and cause an incident.

The traffic was crowded, and passing the time in silence was growing tiresome.

"So, any guesses on what's wrong with me?" Artemis asked, not expecting much, but trying to make conversation.

"All I know is that Foaly wants you here to run some additional tests. It's probably nothing."

"Holly, you and I both know that 'probably nothing' is rarely actually nothing. The question is whether it's bad or fatal."

"What did you tell Butler and your family?" Holly asked, eager to change the subject from the rather morbid current speculation.

"I told Butler I was with you and headed to Haven. Didn't tell him it was this, though. As far as he's concerned, I'm donating my time to the LEP in order to help with some new designs for safety equipment. He seemed to buy that."

_Like hell he did_, Holly thought, but kept it to herself.

"What about your family?"

"I told mother the truth. Father's had a bit of a complex about keeping me safe since I... well, ever since..."

"... the incident, in which you died and managed to hang on in incorporeal form for nearly six months before being restored to physical form by inhabiting a clone of your original body?"

"Well, as far as he's concerned, I was in an accident when 'the incident' occurred and spent six months in a coma. It really isn't all that far from the truth. Beckett and Myles bought that line too. But I told mother that I was going to Haven for testing as a result of my... unique condition. Told her it was routine. Left out the bit where you came to do the testing and found something wrong with me. Father will be told that I'm staying overnight in a private hospital. No visitors."

"And when Angeline and Butler inevitably compare notes?"

"I will apologize to Butler for misleading him, and to mother for leaving out certain things. It's hardly the worst lie I've told them."

"And what do you want to do about..." Holly began to ask, and then trailed off, as an awkward blush lit up her cheeks.

Artemis blushed too, something which he rarely did, but seemed to have been doing a lot of over the last couple days.

"I think that whatever we need to sort out, we can do over dinner, after having the tests run."

An awkward pause broke out, and then he continued.

"I... I did want to ask about..." he began, trailing off.

"About?" Holly prompted, looking at the Mud Boy's face in the rear-view mirror, the only part unobscured by cam-foil.

"When we...," he blushed even more fiercely, then steeled himself, "When we... had sex, we didn't use protection. Is there a risk of...?"

Holly's blush was practically incandescent, but she still found herself laughing.

"For all your knowledge of the People, Artemis Fowl apparently falls a bit short on elementary Health class, is that right?"

"So sue me," he spat back, "It's not like it's written down in the book. I assume, for all the morphological differences between the families, that you each have different traits? And yet, in spite of that, the families can still interbreed?"

Holly stopped, wiping a slight tear from her eye.

"You aren't entirely wrong. Elves, Gnomes and Sprites all have roughly comparable cycles. Whereas a human's menstrual cycle can take about a month, ours last nearly a decade, with about a two-month fertile cycle. I'm about two years from my next one, so you're fine."

Artemis breathed a short sigh of relief at that.

"As to why the families can interbreed, the answer is magic. Each of the magical families can theoretically interbreed with any species, provided that they have enough magic to kickstart the pregnancy, which is surprisingly little. That's why you'll see Goblin-Sprite hybrids running around, no problem, but never see a Centaur-Goblin."

"How does magic overcome genetic differences?"

Holly shrugged.

"To the best of my knowledge, it somehow rewrites the DNA to allow the hybrid to begin to grow."

"Fascinating. I would love to study it."

Holly gave him a look in the rear-view mirror, and he blushed again.

They arrived at Police Plaza within a few minutes, which passed slowly for want of conversation. Holly caught herself continually looking back at Artemis.

_When this is over_, she told herself, _what are we going to do?_

She had no idea what had came over her on the surface. _Do I want a relationship with him, _she asked herself, _or am I simply using him to fulfill an urge?_

She caught Artemis looking up at her, small glances as if to go unnoticed. They had a lot to go over, if they wanted to make it work, she knew.

Parking the shuttle in the plaza's rear, she climbed out, unlocking the back seat's safety locks as she did. Artemis climbed out, discarding the cam-foil as he went. He was now attracting odd looks from the passing faeries, mostly off-duty LEP traffic cops. But once they saw Holly, most managed to put two and two together and realized it was Artemis Fowl.

A strange side effect of her fame as 'the Elfin face of LEPrecon', as she had been dubbed after the goblin rebellion, and then again after helping bring the demon's island of Hybras back to the present, and then again after stopping Turnball Root from destroying a medical shuttle, and once more after putting down Opal Koboi's last attempt to install herself as emperor (Holly was beginning to think that fate had it out for her), was that among the faeries, her fame had entirely eclipsed Artemis's. She was an easily-recognized figure, whereas if anybody knew Artemis, they remembered him as a snot-nosed eleven year old. Eight years had passed since then, but that was barely anything to faeries. Even if they knew, logically, that Artemis would be an adult in human terms, they rarely actually processed that information until they saw him standing before them.

_Frankly, I can barely believe it myself_, she thought, and then felt a bit of guilt. _Artemis is no longer a child,_ she scolded, _and I should know that, given that I've had sex with him!_

She led Artemis through a series of gateways, trying her best to keep him out of sight of any of the actual Recon jocks. It wasn't that she couldn't explain why she had brought him – that was already above-board, and Foaly had even sent her an email saying that he had cleared it with Trouble – it was that it would take time that she didn't really have.

Taking much longer than it would have usually, she brough Artemis into Foaly's lab, where the centaur and No. 1 were prepping an examination table. That is, it would have been a normal table, but they had cleared and sterilized it. Above it, Foaly had rigged a series of scanners and sensors, which blinked ominously.

"Right, Artemis," Foaly said as he saw the pair enter the room. Artemis was able to surmise from how the centaur avoided eye contact that he knew what the pair had done on the surface.

"Take off your clothes and lie on this table, and I'll do my best to explain my theory," the centaur explained.

No. 1 nodded, "And I, having already heard his musings, will fill in the blanks."

Artemis stripped down to his underwear and laid on the table. Holly found herself quietly admiring Artemis's physique, though she attempted to avoid staring too long and drawing attention to herself. No. 1 and Foaly, both being sentient creatures with working eyes, noticed anyways.

The scanners began beeping and whirring as Artemis held still and let them work.

"So let me begin with this. Humans are not creatures born to magic. In ages past, it is theorized that they may have been able to maintain a few sparks – not the high magicks that gnomes and elves possessed, but enough to call upon some of the lesser powers faeries possess."

"- and that theory is backed by evidence!" No. 1 exclaimed, excitedly, "I've encountered magical residues in areas that humans occupied roughly ten thousand years ago. It's faint, but definitely present."

"Right," Foaly said, sighing at the interruption but recognizing that No. 1 was the resident expert, "but anyways, humans have lacked magic for the entirety of modern history. Why they lost it is unknown. Gnomish warlocks speculate that, if humans possessed magic, they lost it because they violated ancient taboos that go beyond the simple ones that were created when faeries were still living above ground. The end result is the same – no magic."

Artemis nodded. This was all basic stuff; he had gleaned as much from his own research when he had gained a bit of magic of his own.

"Being without magic, humans develop differently from faeries, at least normally. While certain circles are convinced that height is enough to prevent one from fully developing magical abilities – a theory that has never been successfully proven – it is proven that human hormones act as a natural magical inhibitor. A development that occurred somewhere after humans lost their magic, one would surmise."

Holly was tapping her neutrino, absentmindedly. They hadn't yet gone beyond the basic knowledge that any faerie high schooler would know, if they had prodded their teacher to give them extra details a bit.

"These hormones are actually highly similar to those present when a demon warps!" No. 1 interjected, his excitement palpable, "which lends credence to another theory of Quan's, which is that humans were at some point engineered to warp and lose magical abilities around puberty, in order to prevent them from overtaking faeries!"

"Besides the point. But without magic present in significant quantities, humans grow normally. But you have been subject to a great deal of magic over the years. Many times the ambient magical radiation a human would experience, even living on top of a intersection of ley lines, or on top of a magical site. This would normally simply result in a slowing-down of the aging process, maybe adopting one or two faerie-like traits. A bit too much and you would begin to show some of the effects of faerie taboos – alcohol would repulse you, you'd have a bit of trouble crossing boundaries uninvited, that sort of thing – but you have more than simply been exposed to and healed by magic. The chrysalis your new body was grown in is partly a magical design; it uses a specialized type of biotech grown from gnomish stem cells to produce enough magic of its own to speed growth – something which makes it vastly superior to any other type of cloning thusfar devised. But it was designed with one goal in mind – to clone Opal Koboi, once. It was never meant to be used on a nonmagical creature."

Foaly was monitoring several screens while the scanners continued to do their work over Artemis.

"Now, I'll let No. 1 take over for a bit. He's the one who suggested the rest."

No. 1 eagerly stepped forward, as if walking up to a podium.

"Alright, so, Artemis. Every living creature has an aura of energy. Life-force, if you will. When a creature dies, this life force dissipates into the surrounding area peacefully as their soul transitions into a new state. This energy is thought to return to the earth and power future magics. But when a creature dies unnaturally, like you did, a bit of that energy can be kept around the soul. This allows it to maintain a bit of a foothold. Granted, you were probably kept around more by the aftereffects of Bruin Fadda's curse, powering your efforts, but all the same, you stuck around. But this 'aura' is particularly potent for magical creatures, like Holly and I. Holly's aura was depleted when you kissed her, allowing a bit of your DNA to remain so we can clone you -" he paused here, looking at Holly's face, "- But I'm not sure why you even bothered with that, since she has one of your eyes, full of DNA, like right there-"

He caught an annoyed look from Foaly.

"- but I digress. So Holly's aura was depleted, but since she was still alive, it was not gone. I think that that aura overpowered the aura naturally possessed by your cells and a bit of it rubbed off, so that when you were cloned, the magical powers fed into those cell's aura to grow you a new body with just a touch of her magic. This forged a connection in magic between the two of you. More powerful than a simple empathic link – magically speaking, your two auras are connected, almost welded together."

Holly's eyes widened, and she caught Artemis's gaze as his did the same. It made sense.

"Needless to say, severing this link is next to impossible. Artemis's entire body, at present, is irrevocably connected at a cellular level to Holly's aura."

"So, anything I feel, she feels?" Artemis asked, attempting to keep his voice level.

"Well, no," No. 1 said, "That's the odd bit. This kind of connection usually only transmits powerful feelings, when there's a strong resonance between how you two feel. If you were both angry, the aura would make you both incredibly so."

"And if, for the sake of argument, we were... aroused?"

No. 1 winked at Artemis, "Your little quickie in the barn. You both were just a little bit horny, and most of it was directed at each other, but being as close as you were to one another led to a feedback loop, of sorts. I wouldn't say you two couldn't control it, if you had wanted to – but you didn't want to."

Artemis and Holly blushed in unison, and suddenly became aware that the feeling was much more extreme than usual.

"The link is strongest when you two are in close proximity to each other – and when you make physical contact. If one of you is on the surface and one of you is in Haven, however, it would probably only effect you during times of high magical energy – the full moon is probably the best example."

"Anyways," Foaly said, having had enough of the discussion on Holly and Artemis's ill-advised rendezvous, "the changes are more than simply aura – Artemis, your new body is closer to faerie than any human's since before Frond. You've probably noticed some changes – increased attraction to the outdoors, maybe a bit more misanthropy than usual -"

"- I have become particularly annoyed with people who don't recycle properly," Artemis noted.

"But the point is," Foaly said, "we have every reason to assume you are part elf, now."


	6. Chapter 6: Chaser

"Part elf?" Artemis said, a bit of a laugh at the edge of his voice, "Don't be ridiculous. It's not as if my genetics have been altered."

"Actually, a bit of them has. Mostly around the edges – but it's definitely present. But it's mainly epigenetic – Elves and Humans in particular have about 99% of their genetic makeup in common, about the same as chimpanzees," Foaly said, barely pausing for breath, "There are even documented – incredibly rare, but documented – cases of interbreeding between the two species without magical assistance. This lends credence to the theory that humans did diverge from one of the faerie families at some point. Gnomes are a little bit further away, at 98%, but all the same. All it took was a little epigenetic shift – not enough to even get past the margin of error on tests I did on the Chrysalis – but the result's the same."

"What does this mean for me?" Artemis asked.

"You are now a creature of magic," No. 1 said, with a wink, "You may not have any now, but you could probably complete the ritual to gain access to some. Your human hormones – primarily HGH and Androgen - will inhibit your powers, so you probably won't ever be able to do much more than use the gift of tongues and the mesmer, but that's still more than almost any human born in the last few millennia. You will age more slowly – again, probably more quickly than an elf, but not much more so, giving you a life expectancy measured in centuries, rather than decades. As time goes on, if you keep a decent amount of magic in your system, your body will develop more and more elfin traits. Pointed ears being prominent among them. You'll still have your height, though, if that helps. Don't worry, though, that development will take decades."

"But, Holly, we're more worried about you," Foaly said solemnly, turning to face her.

Holly was still in a certain degree of shock, but she turned to face the centaur.

"The link between you two is powerful," No. 1 said, "Enough so that Foaly and I are worried that you may experience some of the changes Artemis is, but in reverse. It will take longer, as you aren't being grown from a single cell, but your aura and his are slowly exchanging and fusing. Eventually, it will begin to affect your genetics as well."

"What do you mean?" she asked, her voice catching a little bit in her throat.

"You will probably grow a bit," No. 1 said helpfully, "your body will produce trace amounts of HGH, along with other hormones, which will slow your magic down a bit, but not noticeably, at least not at first. More noticeable will be a growth spurt. We aren't sure when exactly – you'll probably go through something akin to human puberty once your body realizes what's going on. That'll probably be at least a couple decades off, but once it occurs, your hormonal cycle will become more akin to a human's and you'll probably pass more readily as one. Like Artemis, you'll probably age at a slightly different rate, but still, probably not significantly less than what your expectancy already was."

"My gods," Holly said, crossing to an open chair and sitting down, "We're going to be freaks."

"Well," said No. 1, his voice unreasonably cheery, "At least you two will be able to keep each other company."

"Is there nothing you can do?" said Artemis, feeling Holly's anguish as acutely as if it were his own.

"Not really. The change is inevitable once it begins. The only respite we have is that it will take a while to begin, and not be noticeable for a while after that point," Foaly said, gravely, understanding Holly's pain, guilt wracking his heart.

"This is your fault, centaur," Artemis growled, looking for anyone else to blame.

"How was I to know?" Foaly snarled in return, "After all, this was your gods-damned idea. The brilliant Artemis Fowl, too smart to let even death claim him. Never thought that there could be collateral damage, did you?"

No. 1 watched the exchange like a small child watching its favorite teachers fight.

"I – I'm not the one who decided to try and clone someone in a machine I barely understood!" Artemis retorted, grasping at straws.

"Shut up, both of you!" Holly screamed, tears welling up in her eyes. The outburst silenced the room.

No. 1, being what he is, tried to mediate.

"No one is to blame," he said, quietly, but firmly. "This is not a curse. This is not a wrongdoing someone did to you. Any of you. This is simply something you're going to have to find a way to live with."

Artemis, Foaly and Holly all glared resentfully at the warlock, but knew it was true. They sat in silence for some time, Artemis eventually standing up and getting dressed.

After an eternity that was probably no longer than twenty minutes, there was a knock at the door. Foaly crossed to a computer and brought up an image of the camera placed on just the opposite side of the door. It was Commander Trouble Kelp, his face a shade of purple that would have made Julius Root question his blood pressure.

Foaly answered the intercom.

"Yes, Commander Kelp?"

"Foaly, you four-legged son of a donkey, do you mind telling me why Artemis Fowl is in Police Plaza with one of my officers without my permission, and why you have him stored in your little hidey-hole like one of your gods-damned lab rats?" Trouble roared into the intercom.

"There's a bit of an explanation behind this one, sir," Foaly began.

"THERE BETTER GODS-DAMN BE!" came the voice, so loud that it caused the intercom's speaker to crackle.

Foaly sighed and buzzed him in.

As soon as Trouble walked in and saw Holly's state – with red, puffy eyes and streaks from tears still running down her face – he calmed down considerably.

"What in Frond's name happened?" He asked, gravely.

Foaly and No. 1 gave him the cliff-notes version, skipping over the bit where Holly and Artemis had had sex on the manor property, but explaining the condition which had been produced by cloning Artemis. Trouble listened intently, eyes narrowed.

When the tale was done, he looked at Holly, then at Artemis, narrowed his eyes, and walked forward to stand directly in front of Artemis. It would have been comical – a three-foot tall elf standing less than six inches in front of a six-foot-tall man, glaring up at him – but it was suddenly less so when Trouble wordlessly drew back a fist and punched Artemis, square in the stomach, with enough force to double the Mud-man over and drive him to his knees.

He then turned, crossed to Holly, and spoke.

"This is a lot to take in, Holly, I know," he said, with surprising gentleness, given that Artemis was still on the floor, trying to recover his breath from the bruise to his diaphragm, "You have some vacation time. Or rather, you should. You've got the next week. I'll get Grub to cover your hours in the meantime. Gods know that boy needs to focus more on his paperwork."

Then, he turned back to the room at large, raised a fist and roared, "And somebody better get that Mud-boy out of my plaza before I have him arrested on trespassing charges! Foaly! You're lucky you aren't fired over this. I better have notices for the recycling of that… Chrysalid or whatever on my desk within the next hour. Gods know it won't repair the damage that thing did, but I'll rest easier knowing it's gone. Number one!"

No. 1 looked up at the sound of his name, making eye contact with the commander, who sighed and lowered his fist.

"Thanks for helping Foaly figure this one out, at least. I don't suppose you'd be willing to join me and Lilli for dinner sometime?"

"I… what?" No. 1 was as surprised by the about-face as anyone.

"Ever since the incident… Lilli hasn't been doing so well. Our wedding's in two months and I was wondering if I could ask for your help. The medical warlocks just aren't able to do enough."

"I… I'll see what I can do. I should be free next Tuesday or so. But on one condition, though."

"Name it."

No. 1's face, a normally puggishly adorable, gargoyle-like mug, hardened to steel.

"Never lay a hand on Artemis Fowl again," he said, his voice ending in a snarl that would have made Leon Abbot proud, his hands sparkling with magical lightning.

Trouble looked at Artemis, looked at Holly, and nodded. Already he was regretting that.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, bowing in the direction of Artemis, who was just now recovering enough to start standing up. Then, Trouble turned and walked out the door of the office.

As soon as Trouble was gone, No. 1 crossed to Artemis and allowed a small dribble of magic from his hands to heal Artemis's bruised diaphragm and cracked rib. The pain subsiding just as quickly, Artemis looked at Holly, who was looking at her hands with the expression of someone who had just been handed a death sentence.

"Not to be rude," Foaly said, abruptly, "But we should all probably vacate the premises for the time being. Trouble wasn't kidding about the trespassing charges."

No. 1 crossed to Holly and put a hand on her shoulder, which she covered with one of her own. After a moment more of reverie, she stood up, and did her best to put on a brave face.

"Right," she said, struggling to keep her tone almost normal, "We should probably find somewhere to hold up for a little bit. I'm feeling peckish. How about Bartleby's?"

The rest would have been shocked by the about-face, but given what had already transpired, they were well-past the point of being any more shocked by current events. A probe could have crashed into the room at this point, with gremlins climbing out and declaring themselves the kings of Haven, and they would've just accepted it.

Haven, Bartleby's Fine Dining

Bartleby's was a fine-dining restaurant in name only. The closest equivalent you could probably find was an American Diner. The place was usually pretty busy, but the strange group of four had the prescience to arrive at one of their slow times, which is to say, in the middle of a shift.

The proprietess was a Gnome woman by the name of Derra Bartleby, the daughter of the original owner. She was proud to carry on in the family tradition of keeping the place running by taking on every shift that someone else vacated, which, given their understaffed nature, meant she worked eleven hour days, six days a week. She was a kind soul, and fairly open-minded, which is why she didn't have a heart attack when Holly Short, a Centaur, a Demon, and a Mud-Man all walked into her shop, looking for all the world like they had just vacated a funeral. She handled this in the way all waitresses should, which is to say, standing up from where she was resting behind the register, grabbing four menus, and saying, "Right this way, sirs and miss, can I get any of you something to drink?"

"Water," said the Centaur, grimly.

"Water for me as well," said the Demon, cheerfully and politely.

"I don't suppose you have Earl Grey tea?" asked the human in flawless gnomish, something which only mildly shocked Derra.

"Rice wine, Derra," said Holly, the only one of the group who came to this restaurant regularly enough to know the owner's name. Technically alcohol wasn't to be served past eight on week days, but Derra knew the facial expressions of someone who's had a terrible day well enough to sympathize, and took the order. Leaving the menus, she went to fetch the drinks.

"So, Trouble Kelp and Lilli Frond?" Artemis asked, pointedly. He was aware enough of the two from gossip that Holly had shared over the years with him, but from his impressions of the two, they seemed like a strange couple.

"The rest of us were just as shocked," said Foaly, a slight smile creeping across his face, "I just thought he was on the rebound from Holly. But, they've made it work."

"What happened during the incident?" Artemis asked, curiously, "I mean, to Lilli."

"She was one of the officers who received a 'complimentary cellular phone' before the incident," Holly said, quietly, "Actually sent by one of Opal's followers on the outside. When the incident occurred, it exploded in her hip pocket. It did a lot of damage. Luckily, she had enough magic to stop the bleeding, but she lost her left leg at the hip, damaged a few of her organs and took out a couple of her fingers. She almost died. Worse, she had been at home, alone when it happened. She had to drag herself to a phone to dial emergency services, then she called Trouble."

Holly paused for a moment, then continued, "She thought she was going to die, and she called Trouble to comfort _him_. He was able to rush back and take her to an emergency clinic set up near the Plaza, and thanks to that, she's alive."

"Anyone that thought it was just a rebound," she glared pointedly at Foaly, "Doesn't know Lilli, and certainly doesn't know Trouble."

The group sat in sullen silence until Derra brought the drinks. She winked at Holly and left the bottle of rice wine at the table. Holly downed a glass in a second and poured herself another.

"So... er... are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?" No. 1 asked, looking from sullen expression to sullen expression.

"What?" Holly asked, glumly, "That I'm going to wind up five foot six and look like a side-show monstrosity because someone couldn't keep one brilliant idea to themselves?"

She looked pointedly at Artemis. In the old days, he might have just let it slide off, but he had just a smidgen more of the captain in him than those days, and that was enough to make him respond in kind.

"You know that I didn't choose this, Holly. If I could reverse what has been done to us both-"

"You'd what?" she asked, downing another glass of rice wine and glaring, "Because the way I see it, you're looking at all positives here. You're the one who will get magic. You're the one who will get to live centuries. Me? I'm looking at losing magic, and dying before my time."

"You know," No. 1 noted, "It would ring a little bit less hollow if you didn't have that habit of throwing yourself into life-threatening situations for each other."

Artemis and Holly both turned fierce glares at him, but he had taken much worse than glares on Hybras, so he plowed on.

"For gods' sake. You two have been in how many horrifying situations together? Looked death in the eye and laughed how many times? Why is it so horrifying, now that you two might die in a few centuries, instead of a few minutes?"

Foaly nodded at this, slightly.

Holly poured herself a third glass or rice wine, but didn't answer. Neither did Artemis. Instead, Holly drank the third glass slowly, and left for the restroom.

No. 1 and Foaly were both exchanging pointed looks, and then looked at Artemis. Artemis sighed, grabbed the carafe of rice wine, downed what little was left with a grimace, and made his way after her.

He could feel her pain as much as his own, but could not sense why. The Holly he knew would never have flown off the handle over something like this. But something was eating at her. Something more than just change.

He knocked on the restroom door, and, when no one answered, tried the handle. It was unlocked. He opened it, to see Holly looking in the mirror, intently, staring into her own eyes. When he walked into the room, she didn't turn, but her eyes made silent contact with him in the mirror.

He closed the door and stood silently behind her. She kept looking at him, but neither of them spoke for a minute, which felt agonizingly long.

"When I was young, people always told me I looked like my mother," she said, her voice rendered monotone by sadness. "I suppose you never saw her, and I regret not keeping more pictures of her, but..."

She locked eyes with herself in the mirror again.

"I don't know how to deal with this, Artemis. This is a lot to take in."

"I know," he said, hoarsely, drawing nearer to her, and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Can I tell you something?" he asked her, looking at the mirror again.

She nodded, silently.

"When my father disappeared, that was when I started wearing suits regularly. Every time I looked at myself in the mirror, I'd see a bit of him in myself, and that alone gave me hope. I can't imagine what it must be like to lose that, and for that, I am truly sorry."

She put a hand over the one on his shoulder and squeezed it slightly. Again, she could have sworn she felt a single spark transfer through herself into Artemis, but this time, more gently. Less like a shock, more like a slight tingle.

"I'm sorry too, Artemis. But Number One was right about one thing."

She paused, and smiled at the sight of the two of them in the mirror.

"No matter what happens, at least we'll still have each other."


End file.
